Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City Kindle & comiXology

Like other reviewers, I'm also a huge fan of Delisle's other works and am very grateful that he still has a couple other collections out there for me to enjoy.This book is markedly different from his other travel books and I knew when reading it that when I was finished I'd find plenty of angry reviews online.Sure enough, all sorts of users here are complaining about the author's jaded perspective and his taking sides and not telling the complete story.What these reviewers fail to recognize is the amazing achievement that this book represents. Despite all the overreacting in these comments, and the hyperbole,no intelligent and logical person could argue that Delisle taking sides, or not telling the whole story.That's not the point of the book. The book is an accurate account of a Westerner's year spent living in Jerusalem.It is not intended, nor could it ever be a comprehensive historical account.Is Maus an accurate and balanced history? Would that book be so powerful and captivating if it was?Instead we see a smart, talented, educated white guy who is neither Jewish nor Arabic making an effort to understand the COMPLETE AND UTTER MESS THAT IS MODERN JERUSALEM.What is the honest response for someone like that? Yeah, he gets frustrated, yeah he sides with the underdog sometimes, yeah is guilty of cultural misunderstandings and somefaux pas, and do you know why? Because he's human. The book is very deliberately and consciously subjective.If you want a historical and unbiased look at modern Jerusalem--good luck. It isn't out there, because everyone will bring their baggage to the table.And anyway, if you want history and detailed social analysis, my guess is that you're a fool for complaining that you're not getting that in an autobiographical comic.For those who aren't interested in all that political crap, a few comments on the art and storytelling:Delisle's craft here is top notch. Some of the panels had me taking pics with my phone and sending them to friends. And it's not because they are remarkable in obvious and ambitious ways,they're just so poignant and subtle in their characterization of a particular gesture or mood or moment.As for the storytelling, this book feels more like the North Korean book than the Burma book for me. I don't know what it was about Burma, but there was a tenderness and lightness to that book,that is understandably lacking here. Perhaps that's because the Burmese culture is so foreign to Delisle that it's easier to make a cartoon out of the plights and strife of the people.Whereas Jerusalem is, for the whole world, the pressure cooker. Everyone has something invested--especially the "First World" bourgeois.So, just be prepared that there's an edge here and a frustration that is absent in his other work. Again though, this is highly understandable.I can't imagine being as even-keeled as he is after living in Jerusalem for a year. As is, he behaves admirably.My final note is that I couldn't help but wonder if he has an agreement with his partner that she makes only brief and distant appearances in his book. Over and over I foundmyself wanting to know her more and read her dialogue and thoughts and get her perspective. Nadege(sp) is deliberately absent though and I wonder why.Overall, there are just so very few treats like this out there that it seems a shame for everyone to bitch and moan so much. We've got a handful of artists out there producing full-length graphicnovels of this quality and depth. Let's count our blessings that Delisle is doing what he does, because it's obviously a lot of hard work.Way more work than whining and throwing mud in the comments section on Amazon.comThank you, Mr. Delisle.

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City is the best book I have found to break down the Israeli/Palestinian conflict into terms that are understandable to the average reader. Guy Delisle uses a fair, subtle touch to convey the Holy City of Jerusalem through the eyes of a relatively neutral outsider not invested in the conflict, a point-of-view very difficult to find when researching this long-embattled area. Many seem to have a religious and/or political agenda when it comes to this area of the world, and Delisle does a great job of cutting through the commentary to present all sides more fairly.Guy Delisle is a French-speaking artist and animator from Canada. In his excellent prior works Burma Chronicles, Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China, and Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, Delisle documents in graphic novel format his time living and working in exotic locations often misunderstood in the western world. Delisle's wife Nadège works with the organization Doctors Without Borders, and here she is transferred to Jerusalem for a year with Guy and their two small children in tow to help provide medical care throughout Israel. Nadège's job also takes her to the highly controversial Gaza, an area Delisle describes as being even more difficult to gain access to than North Korea.Delisle does not write typical travelogues. By moving to the countries he writes about for extended periods, he gives us an inside view of what it is like to actually live there on a day to day basis. In learning to get around, for example, Delisle learns that Israeli buses have set routes but the non-Israeli buses, although following mostly parallel routes, stop pretty much everywhere. Neither line, however, has much of an idea about what the other is doing at all. He has to find a suitable school and day care for the kids, which proves to be much more difficult than it sounds with the various borders, checkpoints, politics, and religions involved. He also learns that almost everything in Israel involves some sort of political statement, even where you shop for groceries. Finding a suitable playground for his children proves difficult as well, and we learn with a growing sense of irony that a nice playground right across the street in Israel is not necessarily the one your children are allowed to go to.The graphic novel format is an ideal showcase for the author's observations. His accessible, uncluttered drawings are much more than "cartoons" - they are illustrations of life. Photography is prohibited in many areas of Israel, and Delisle's sketches often are the only way to get a true feel of the tensions on all sides involved in border crossings and of the imposing walls crisscrossing and dividing the landscape of the modern Holy Land.Delisle does a terrific job unraveling and explaining the extremely complicated history of Jerusalem and Israel itself. We see how and why Israel was formed and structured the way it is. We see the extremely delicate balance struck between the various religions and factions with claims to the Holy Land, and how that balance translates into practical everyday life. Although security may seem overbearing at times, we see that it is set up that way for a reason.Delisle's understated style is the best way I have found to approach and actually understand this very difficult and often overwhelming subject matter. Highly recommended for all ages.

Good Condition as described!

Especially if you are doing any sort of peace and justice work, this is a great overview, and uses humor and wonderful pictures to tell a story of this couple's experiences in the Holy City!

as far as reading a graphic novel goes, I was surprised/pleased that the book was able to present more to me that I had anticipated. I am drawn to the format more than I expected. but that said, at first I felt the narration was presented so we could draw our own conclusions. but when only one side was presented over and over, I began to wonder why the author wasn't working at investigating more angles in such a setting. and also, I was a little annoyed at the "housewife" presentations. maybe the author wanted to present lazy as a humorous angle, but I felt the depictions of "oh well, too bad, oh woe is me" fell flat. too much of "this is what happened to me because I was not proactive" and not enough of "i'm trying to illustrate life in this city, so I should make continual efforts to explore diverse angles." i'm left with a shrug and a certain lack of empathy, which is rare for me.

Guy Delisle travels to Jerusalem with his partner and their two kids for a year. His partner is an administrator for "Doctors Without Borders" and Delisle spends the year working on his comics, looking after the kids, and exploring/trying to understand the city of Jerusalem and its peoples.If you've read Delisle's work before you'll know he goes to hard-to-reach places and reports on his time there (North Korea, China, Burma) and that the resulting travelogues are always entertaining and enlightening - just like this latest book.The book isn't a polemic nor is it meant to explain the region or the history, it's really just a memoir/travelogue of his time there. So there is equal parts of his time describing his everyday duties looking after the kids and going to parties, making friends, as much as there is encountering and observing violence from bombings in Gaza, to the numerous checkpoints and outright chaos of this area.The reader gets to see how bizarre Jerusalem is. The city is divided into Christian quarters, Jewish quarters, and Muslim quarters, where literally one side of the street a woman can wear what she likes and on the other she must be covered head to foot. The constant military presence and day to day reminders of violence - everyone carries a gun, not just soldiers. The shrillness of the piercing calls to prayer echo throughout the city whether you are religious or not. The ridiculously high number of checkpoints everywhere, the constant traffic jams...As an atheist myself, it's hard to believe that this troubled region is because of one group believing one thing over another leading to literally millennia of conflict. As such, it's incredibly shocking how people will be so petty over everything. One contested house becomes demolished, another goes up - years pass, the house is demolished/taken over, another goes up. And on and on. And the bizarre behaviour of Orthodox Jews who are just flat out racist and violent toward anybody who isn't an Orthodox Jew themselves, is just terrifying.Delisle doesn't take sides on whether he believes one side is right over another, he's an atheist himself and does his best to present all sides of the argument. Through his fresh eyes the reader sees the area as if they were visiting it themselves. It's a fascinating look at a troubled region, told memorably and filled with excellent artwork throughout all by Delisle, who has once again written/drawn a wonderful book on a strange part of our world with characteristic good humour and intelligence.

This has a feeling of truthfulness, showing both the good and the bad sides of life in certain parts of Jerusalem. Guy Delisle always seems like a bit of a masochist, I thought this ever since reading his book on North Korea, but I'm glad he goes into somewhat difficult situations and reports back in such a readable graphic and above all memorable way.

Delise has made his own genere. He draws out his daylilife in exotic places. This time he's a homewife in Jerusalem. His wife is having an interesting job in Gaza while he's looking for playgrounds, cafés and descent kindergartens in the city. Delise want's to get to Gaza too, but he never gets there. The story is slow, but he manages to give the reader interesting information about the history and the present situaton in Israel.

It was a fantastic gift the person it was bought for was absolutely delighted with it I have been to Jerusalem several times and now it is a genuine artical I was over the moon when I recited it

What do you buy the guy who has everything? Apparently this.Bought for my Dad as a birthday present this went down very well, he had his head stuck in it for hours.